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Nine Palestinians And Two Israelis Die in Day of Fury

Nine Palestinians and two Israelis were killed today in fighting across Israel and the occupied territories, as the conflict here became entangled in Israeli electoral politics.

It was the deadliest day in Israel and the territories since suicide bombing attacks killed 22 people last week, and the violence broke out in one area that is ordinarily quiet.

The events came a day after the Palestinian leader, Yasir Arafat, asked Palestinians to refrain from attacking Israeli civilians.

In a speech today, Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, denounced Mr. Arafat's appeal, accusing him of trying to swing the election to his more dovish opponent, Amram Mitzna, the Labor Party candidate. [Page A6.]

Today's events, which included significant Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip and in the Palestinian town of Jenin, prompted accusations from Palestinian leaders that Mr. Sharon was deliberately trying to torpedo their peace offerings. They asserted that Mr. Sharon was stepping up attacks on Palestinians in order to rally Israelis to his side in the runup to parliamentary elections later this month.

''Sharon will not leave us alone,'' said Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian Authority's minister for local government. ''He is determined to mark the election campaign with more Palestinian blood.''

But much of the violence appeared to be initiated by Palestinian fighters, while some appeared to follow no discernible pattern. The violence began shortly after midnight and continued throughout the day.

In one of the most violent incidents, two Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed in a gunfight that broke out when a team of Israelis spotted a group of militants who they said were crossing into Israel from Egypt near the town of Nitzana.

Israeli troops killed two militants, and lost one of their own as well. Israeli officials said their soldiers had swept the area in vain for a third militant, making them wonder if there was a third one at all.

The incident marked a rare departure from the quiet that ordinarily prevails on the border between Egypt and Israel. A majority of the military activity in the area is concentrated on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

In another deadly incident, a pair of Palestinian gunmen slipped into the Israeli farming town of Gadish, near the boundary with the West Bank, and killed an Israeli resident there, Israeli officials said. Israeli security forces killed the two militants during a gunfight, one Israeli official said. Gadish is near the predominantly Palestinian town of Jenin, a center of the Palestinian resistance and the site of heavy fighting earlier this year.

Israeli security forces mounted at least three military operations against Palestinian targets in Gaza today. In the most dramatic, an Israeli helicopter fired a missile into a car believed to contain at least two members of Hamas, the hard-line Palestinian group.

Palestinian witnesses said the car did carry two members of Hamas, identified as Muhammad abu Shamalah and Raed al Attar. But the Palestinian witnesses said the missile, fired by an Israeli Apache helicopter, hit two civilians instead.

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According to those witnesses, the Israeli missile killed Mohammed Kawarea and Abed al Rahman al Najar, both unarmed civilians.

Israeli officials acknowledged that the missile had missed its target, but said they could not confirm any casualties.

The missile attack came after at least two Palestinians were killed during separate Israeli operations in Gaza carried out early this morning.

In the first, Israeli tanks and helicopters entered the town of Khan Yunis, where they dynamited and bulldozed several buildings where Israeli officials said Palestinian militants had been making bombs. Local Gaza residents said the buildings had been used to fabricate metal.

In the Khan Yunis operation, Palestinian witnesses and security officials said a gunfight broke out when the Israeli troops entered the area and killed a member of Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, a group that has carried out several suicide attacks against Israelis. At least 23 others were wounded, the Palestinian sources said, among them women and children. They insisted that the Israelis had singled out Palestinians who were not engaged in gun making.

Ibrahim Zakzuk, a 55-year-old factory owner in Khan Yunis, said the Israeli operations had destroyed $50,000 worth of his equipment. ''I challenge Sharon and his army to bring to the world any evidence that this small industrial area was used on any day to produce weapons,'' Mr. Zakzuk told Agence France-Press. ''It's war against our economy.''

In the Gaza city of Beit Hanun, Israeli forces said they had destroyed the home of Muhammad al Masri, a fighter for Islamic Jihad who was killed while attacking an Israeli naval vessel in November. A Palestinian militant, Ali Nasar, was killed during the operation today, Palestinian sources said.

Later in the day, three rockets fired from Gaza landed near an Israeli school in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, injuring two people. Hamas claimed responsibility, saying it was retaliation for the Israeli incursions in Khan Yunis and Beit Hanun.

In Hebron, Israeli officials said a Palestinian gunman was killed after he fired on a fuel tanker protected by an armed civilian security guard. The guard returned fire, Israeli officials said.

Palestinian witnesses said the man was an unarmed civilian.

Amid the day's violence, efforts at diplomacy sputtered as well. Mr. Sharon met with the British ambassador, Sherard Cowper Coles, and refused to reverse his decision prohibiting a Palestinian delegation to travel to London for a conference intended to encourage change in the Palestinian leadership.

The decision by Mr. Sharon was sharply criticized today by a senior British official, Clare Short, the minister for international development.

''The Blair conference was about helping the Palestinians to build the institutions that would be the beginnings of a competent, well-run Palestinian state,'' she said. ''The conference has been destroyed by the present Israeli government.''

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A version of this article appears in print on January 13, 2003, on Page A00001 of the National edition with the headline: Nine Palestinians And Two Israelis Die in Day of Fury. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe